Many of us have heard our personal finance talk about investments and about long term yields, riding out the market in the long run, and the fabled rule of '72.
Often times I look at travel in the same way...having been on a few international volunteer trips myself I strongly feel that they are strong investments.
How many times have you heard a person return from a trip and say, "That was not worth my time!"
Take a moment and reflect on some of the positive things you hear when a friend or family member returns from a trip and even more specifically a voluntourism trip:
- "It was awesome! The people were so friendly and the sites were beautiful."
- "I just fell in love with the children, it seemed they could be so happy with so little"
- "I really feel called to help more here in the future, it is so important to me to have a direct personal relationship with the people and the area I am helping with"
- "I want to take my friends so that we can do more together"
Fortunately there is a tide that is turning from travel being mostly "after you retire" to being more and more about "traveling young and traveling often". My point here being:
If the benefits of travel and more specifically Voloutourism are so great and without a doubt will impact everyday that we have left in our lives...WHY WAIT?
I am all for people of every age traveling, but lets use a person who is 70 and a person who is 17. Now lets take the life expectancy of a US citizen at birth (link) 78.11 years. Now we all can agree that a 70 year old and a 17 year old will pull different things from a trip of this nature but for this example let's assume that the experiences they both pull have the same "worth". The trip will impact the 70 year old approximately 8.11 years...pretty good for a couple of weeks of a trip impacting the rest of your life right? Well worth it I would say. But now lets look at the 17 year old 61.11 years of life expectancy left for the trip to make an impact!
As an investment in life, a Voluntourism trip promises to be a great investment. WHY WAIT?!
"The most important investment you can make is in yourself." -Warren Buffet
Tomorrow's blog...What do I need to be happy?
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